On the day before yesterday Mr. Reynolds delivered to me your letters of the 8th and 9th inst, as also a despatch containing three letters addressed to me from Pillau, for which I beg to return you my best thanks. I had already taken occasion, some days back, to prepare Baron d'Engestroem for the moment, when, in consequence of the lateness of the season, a formal notification might be made to him, on your part, of the impossibility of your much longer keeping the seas you are in; and I lost no time in soliciting an interview of the Swedish Minister for the purpose of obtaining from him the information which you desire in your letter above mentioned. I stated to his excellency that you were anxious to know whether it became of importance to Sweden that the squadron under your orders should remain in the sea in which it is any time longer. I laid stress upon the circumstance that the only object which you now had in remaining in the Gulf of Finland was the defence of Sweden, and to cover the expedition in West Bothnia; and I did not fail to remark upon the season being advanced, and the dangers to which his Majesty's ships might be exposed by a longer stay in the Gulf of Finland, though at the same time I thought it advisable to dwell upon the sincere wish which I was sure you had to do everything in your power, short of endangering the safety of the fleet, that might be judged desirable by the Swedish Government for the further defence of this country. Baron d'Engestroem asked to consult his sovereign upon the answer to be made, and yesterday he appointed an hour in the evening for me to wait upon him. I had previously written to him in the morning a letter of which the enclosed is a copy, from the warmth with which he assured me that at all events, and under whatever stipulations, peace might be made between Sweden and her enemies. His Majesty's ships under your command, to whose efforts Sweden was so much indebted, should have no reason to dread the result, or your excellency have cause to be anxious, lest an article for the exclusion of British ships from the Swedish ports should be suddenly enforced, even if Sweden were finally to be under the necessity of agreeing to a treaty containing it. I was afraid that the Swedish Minister might labour under the mistake of imagining that a suspicion of such a state of things being likely to take place, might possibly be connected with your desire to withdraw from the Gulf of Finland at the present moment, and I therefore judged it advisable, without making an official note of it, to write the letter, a copy of which I enclose, and which I hope will meet with your approbation.